Visvesvaraya Fellowships for Engineering Students & Young Engineers

Introduction

The Visvesvaraya fellowships for engineering students and young engineers is a fellowship scheme for young engineering students instituted by the Venture Center (located at National Chemical Laboratory, Pune) with the aim of cultivating and nurturing an interest in technology development and commercialization as a mechanism to build/offer solutions for the addressing problems/needs of society. The fellowship has been instituted at Venture Center, thanks to a generous donation by Dr Ashish K Lele.

Objectives:

• For the student applicant:
  • Current students or recently graduated professionals in engineering/technology
  • Applicants with strong interest in technology. Track record and previous experience tinkering with technology, building prototypes, conceptualizing solutions to problems will be a plus.
  • Students showing evidence of leadership and resourcefulness will be given preference.
• For the type of project:
  • The larger project has to be focused on technology development/ advancement or prototype development or proof-of-concept establishment/ validation.
  • The student project can be a part of the larger project.
  • Typical projects will have one or more of the following components: a) a problem/ need, b) a proposed solution, c) a strategy to demonstrate that the solution works, d) activities to advance the technology towards commercialization.
• For the host and technical mentor:
  • The host/technical mentor for the project need to be a Scientist (or Scientist Fellow or equivalent) at NCL.
  • The host/technical mentor needs to have adequate facilities and research funding to support other costs and resource needs of the project.
• Preference:
  • Applicants with a clear focus on building start-ups.
  • Projects with the potential to result into start-ups.

Benefits for the applicant:

• Experiential learning opportunity in internship mode with an experienced technical mentor
• Short training sessions on Venture Center's concepts and framework for technology development and commercialization
• Certificate of Award and Completion from the Venture Center for receiving and completing the Visvesvaraya fellowship.
• Subsistence stipend for the fellow.
• One time travel grant

Benefits for the host/technical mentor:

• Opportunity to engage young and energetic engineers/engineering students on exploring and developing the technology development and commercialization case. Opportunity to zoom-out and explore the larger picture.
• Opportunity to identify young people who might be interested in taking the technology ahead as entrepreneurs.
• Overhead support for the fellow.

How to apply:

• Applicants need to first get in touch with relevant NCL Scientists to identify suitable projects for undertaking during the fellowship period. Profiles of NCL scientists can be found at www.ncl-india.org and www.ncl.res.in
• Applicants can apply anytime during the year.  To apply click here
• Apply to the contact person given below with the following 5 documents:
  1. Resume or CV
  2. Summary of proposed technology project (max 1 page)
  3. Summary of what will be scope of work that the applicant plans to carry out during the fellowship period (max 1 page)
  4. Short essay on the applicant's career goals and aspirations (max 500 words)
  5. Letter of support and recommendation by the host/technical mentor (NCL Scientist)
• The Venture Center management team shall review all applications, carry out phone interviews with the applicants and/or hosts/technical mentors. The Venture Center will seek inputs from experts as necessary.
• The results shall typically be informed to the applicants within 2-3 weeks.

Other notes:

• Venture Center reserves the right to offer more or less number of fellowships per year and/or decide on fellowship durations as per need so as to maximize impact of the program.
• Venture Center reserves the right to make changes to the program from time to time based on learning from the program.
• The Venture Center reserves the right to combine the Visvesvaraya Fellowships with other fellowships/ internships (or supplement other fellowships/ internships) as long as there is no conflict of interest or commitment between the two.

Past Fellows :

Acknoledgement :

This fellowship has been instituted by Venture Center thanks to a generous donation by Dr Ashish Lele, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. Dr Ashish Lele donated a substantial share of his Infosys Prize (2012) to Venture Center’s corpus for promoting technology goals at research institutions and inculcating a passion in undergraduate students for technology development and solving the pressing needs of the Nation and society.